Friday, May 16, 2008

The ugly face of Indians

I have a reputation for not abusing, yet if right now I feel like hurling choicest of expletives at Indians, no one in general, you may understand the mental state I am in after reading this shocking tale of insensitivity of Indians, and no I am not talking about Shivraj Patil and his hunchmen.

"Passengers sqeeze life out of child" (wrong spelling of 'Squeeze' is not a typo by me, its by paper, that too for a front page news) screams the headline on New Indian Express (Hyderabad, 16th May). A seven year child, Aishwarya, traveling with her sisters and parents in general compartment of Egmore-Guwahati Express died due to suffocation and scorching heat in the compartment.


Her parents tried saving the children from "constant pushing and shoving from insensitive fellow passengers" but Aishwarya started vomiting and ran up high temperatures. The 108 Emergency Helpline Ambulance that was called by her father lacked first-aid facilities and child could not be saved.

Do you know the sensation of being choked? Being crushed from all sides and struggling for a little air to breathe? I know, because I experienced it once when I was a child and went to a religious fair with my mother and aunty. Just imagine that 7 year old child struggling to have a little fresh air and dieing every moment till that moment which ended her sufferings for ever. Just imagine the grief of a family which lost a child during a few hours journey!

Add to that the insensitivity of people around you. Constantly shoving and pushing around. We all love children of our co passengers until we have to share our seat with them!

What kind of people we Indians have become? We have been known for ugly behavior, spitting and urinating in public, but I am really anguished by this new face of insensitive Indian. Given a chance of being safe from any punishment (which a mob gives us amply) we will display our worst behavior. Do you know these days every time I visit rediff.com, I spend more time marking messages as abuse rather than reading articles. Worst kind of abusive, libelous and irrelevant messages are written on Rediff's message boards by us. Why? Why this desire of sadistic pleasure?

What is happening to India? What is happening to Indians?

6 comments:

Neha said...

It is hurting and saddening to read this and belive me I am ashamed, takes away the sense of pride I always had being an Indian. But, there are no answers. I don't have any and I don't think anyone else does.

ubuntu said...

it is shocking to see, we Indians can fall so low. I don't believe any person can do like this.

Well, I haven't got your comments on SFO trip .. so will you mind posting it again :-)

Praveen राठी said...

Hmmm bad. Very bad.
I have another instance of something similar. Check this out:

This man is 62 years old. Shameful act.

Praveen राठी said...

Sorry, I messed up the earlier comment.

Bad. Very Bad.
I got another similar instance. Check this out:
Height of Cruelty
Shameful act.

Unknown said...

so bad... we are going down and down in every human aspect..

kalyan said...

sorry, i messed up the headline but heartened to see your response to the report.